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On Octo­ber 13, Pi Theatre’s Artis­tic Asso­ciates Pippa Mackie and Jeff Glad­stone and actors Tom Pick­ett and Bar­bara Ellen Pol­lard pre­sented the pro­gram for the evening to an eager audi­ence. The crowd lis­tened while mar­vel­ling at the party favours in their hands: pack­ets of con­doms for both men and women. Each actor was cos­tumed in a sim­ple white top and black bot­toms, with a few shirt but­tons left open sug­ges­tively. Mackie had pur­pose­fully put on ripped, black pantyhose.

Wel­come to the Sex Edi­tion, the first per­for­mance of the dar­ing series Lost Words. That night, the troupe would per­form three “very sexy…and twisted” plays which had been banned dur­ing the late 19th to 20th cen­tury. Lost Words, Mackie and Glad­stone explained, would fea­ture cheeky, redacted plays and all the sen­si­tive top­ics that come along with them. They closed the intro­duc­tion with a sim­ple ques­tion: “What’s more destruc­tive to a soci­ety than…a bunch of artists?” The audi­ence clapped and laughed, and the show began.

The per­form­ers had selected scenes from Frank Wedekind’s Spring Awak­en­ing, Michael McClure’s The Beard, and Thomas Bradshaw’s Inti­macy. Orgasms took place on stage, and sto­ry­lines touched intre­pidly on pedophilia, incest, and pornog­ra­phy, yet every­thing was per­formed poet­i­cally. In between each play, they per­formed songs which had also once been cen­sored. Ren­di­tions of “Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar)” and “Colt 45” (dur­ing which my friend said to me, “This song is a mas­ter­piece!”) light­ened the mood of an oth­er­wise intense performance.

The audi­ence that night were observ­ably respect­ful, open-minded, and so ready to have fun. Some of us, admit­tedly, made uncom­fort­able noises at moments dur­ing the scenes with explicit content—but these were hon­est, unin­hib­ited reac­tions, not signs of dis­ap­proval. I don’t think the provoca­tive the­atre acts I saw that evening would have had the same impact or appeal at a dif­fer­ent venue, with a less appre­cia­tive and accept­ing audience—a pleas­ant assur­ance for our “no fun” city.

Luck­ily, there is more to come from Lost Words: on Decem­ber 1, the cast will tackle another cringe-worthy sub­ject: Religion.

Lost Words: Reli­gion Edi­tion takes place at The Emer­ald on Decem­ber 1 at 8:30 pm. Tick­ets will be avail­able on the Pi The­atre web­site and at the door.

SAD Mag

SAD Mag is an independent Vancouver publication featuring stories, art, and design. Founded in 2009, we publish the best of contemporary and emerging artists with a focus on inclusivity of voices and views, exceptional design, and film photography.